Flipkart plans to invest in PhonePe, Fintech; diversify business portfolio

Online retail giant Flipkart on Wednesday said it plans to invest major part of money raised from latest deals, including with Microsoft, in new businesses such as PhonePe and fintech considering opportunities in online money transfer segment.

"A large part of the money raised from the latest deals struck with Tencent, Microsoft and eBay, will be invested in new businesses, especially PhonePe and fintech," Flipkart Co-Founder and CEO Binny Bansal said.

 There was a huge opportunity on the payments side because a large chunk of business comes from people sending money to each other online, he told ETNow.

"Yeah, opportunities are definitely there on the payment side becoming a business on its own. Even if you look at the business today, a large part of the business comes from people sending money to each other on phone pay, UPI platform," he said.

In the biggest round of funding by an Indian Internet company till date, Flipkart on April 10 raised USD 1.4 billion from blue-chip technology companies Microsoft, eBay and Tencent.

Bansal said Flipkart was also going to invest 'heavily' in other new businesses like grocery, furniture and private labels.

Asked whether forging a partnership with eBay was necessary at all, Bansal said they were very excited about it because it would provide a global platform for Indian sellers to sell their products.

"The eBay partnership and eBay funding has a very strategic lens to it. We are really excited about it. We see a big opportunity in global as well as domestic markets. This will allow lakhs of Indian sellers to sell their products globally.

Flipkart has huge capability of adding sellers on to the market place," he said.

On how difficult it will be to integrate operational, technological and cultural dots of the three entities, Bansal said, "For instance, we have not integrated Myntra. We have allowed it to grow independently and also let their culture thrive."

He replied in the affirmative when asked whether the eco-system will witness stable leadership. "Yeah I think I feel we are now at a place where we can take a long-term view on? business and organisation."

On whether Flipkart ever will be listed at the Nasdaq, Bansal said the company did not want to get distracted by anything.

When asked whether this partnership will have a domino effect, Bansal said the ecosystem had seen it in the past and it was a key event because last four months' narrative has been a bit negative and morale low. Bansal said the partnership does not bring just capital, but actually brings a lot of new opportunities with it.